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Author archives: Peter Sprigg

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Peter Sprigg

December 1, 2010

The Pentagons Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG) on the issue of homosexuality in the military, which issued its report yesterday, was extremely selective in the way it crunched the numbers when reporting the results of a survey of Service members. By following the CRWGs lead, the media has missed the biggest storythe fact that more Service members expect negative consequences than positive consequences if the current law is overturned, according to virtually every question that was asked.

You would not know that from the way the findings were reported. Speaking of the possibility of overturning the 1993 law which codified the militarys longstanding ban on open homosexuality in the ranks, they said

70% of Service members predicted it [repeal] would have a positive, mixed, or no effect.

Here is the question on which the 70 percent figure is based:

If Dont Ask, Dont Tell is repealed and you are working with a Service member in your immediate unit who has said he or she is gay or lesbian, how, if at all, would it affect how service members in your immediate unit work together to get the job done? (this is a measure of what they refer to as task cohesion).

The choices for response were:

1) Positively or Very Positively

2) Equally positively and negatively

3) No effect

4) Negatively or Very Negatively

The responses were:

1) Positively or Very Positively: 18.4%

2) Equally positively and negatively: 32.1%

3) No effect: 19.9%

4) Negatively or Very Negatively: 29.6%

The CRWG arrived at the much-repeated 70% figure by adding together the first three categories.

However, the homosexual activists who are pushing for repeal do not argue that there would be equally positive and negative effects. They argue that there would be no negative effects whatsoever, or at least that the positive effects would overwhelmingly outnumber the negative. Therefore, contrary to the way the CRWG and the media have presented it, the equally positive and negative answer should not be taken as supporting the case for overturning current law.

In fact, only answers 1 and 3 (positive or no effect) should be considered supportive of the case that is usually made for repeal. Answers 2 and 4 both indicate that repeal would have negative consequences. Viewed this way, we can argue that

62% of Service members predicted at least some negative effects from repeal, while only 38% predicted only positive or no effects.

However, I would go further and argue that the no effect response does not support the case for repeal, either. I realize that homosexual activists appeal to concepts like justice and equality to argue that if there is no effect, then the law should be changed. But there is no constitutional right to serve in the military, and the exclusion law is fundamentally based on behavior, not identity, so justice and equality are not at stake here.

Furthermore, in many cases the ratios of Negative or Very Negative responses to Positive or Very Positive ones were very dramatic. For example, repeal was:

More than four times more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on your willingness to recommend to a family member or close friend that he or she join the military (27.3% negative to 6.3% positive).

More than six times more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on your military career plans (i.e., intentions to remain in the military)23.7% negative to 3.5% positive.

Nearly six times more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on your level of morale (27.9% negative to 4.8% positive).

The report makes much of the fact that those who say they are already working with a Service member in your immediate unit who has said he or she is gay or lesbian give more positive responses. However, it is important to note that even among this group, negative responses outnumber positive ones on every question.

For example, even those currently serving with a gay or lesbian colleague say repeal is:

Nearly two and a half (2.48) times more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on your immediate units effectiveness at completing its mission in a field environment or out at sea (37.5% to 15.1%).

More than two and a half times more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on your units ability to train well together (26.5% to 10.0%).

To take these surveys as supporting the case for overturning the law is a grave misreading of their findings.

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by
Peter Sprigg

November 17, 2010

Opponents of abstinence-until-marriage education argue, among other things, that it is unrealistic. As evidence, they point to survey data indicating that a majority of Americans now do, in fact, have sexual relations before marrying.

However, the message of the abstinence movement (and related movements favoring the words purity or chastity) is not so simplistic as to say that if a person loses his or her virginity before marrying, that person is then beyond redemption. On the contrarywhile any premarital sex can have lasting consequences, it is never too late to begin the practice of abstinence/purity/chastity, regardless of ones past mistakes.

As you might have guessed, Warren and Marsh ended up together, and were married on October 30.

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by
Peter Sprigg

November 9, 2010

(Caution: Some of the information below, and the website it describes, are not appropriate for children.)

Some homosexual activists are their own worst enemies.

The latest evidence of that fact is a website recently brought to my attention by someone who wrote to the Family Research Council. I refuse to post an actual link to this website, but you can easily type it in yourself. It follows the form of f**h8.com, with letters in the second and third positions.

The beginning of that web address is the three consonants of a well-known four-letter obscenity known as the f-word. The h8 at the end of that address stands for hate.

Homosexual activists have been spelling it h8 ever since the successful 2008 campaign in California to pass Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Twenty-nine of the fifty states now have such amendments.

Leave aside, for the moment, the mystery of how treating uniquely the human relationship that is uniquely capable of reproducing the human race, and believing that children deserve a mother and a father, could possibly constitute hate.

If you go to the website, you will find a short (two minutes or so) video. It consists of several people ranting and raving against the opponents of same-sex marriage—while repeatedly dropping the f-bomb.

Is this supposed to be funny? Do homosexual activists really think that the way to persuade opponents of same-sex marriage to support it is—to swear at people? Repeatedly?

During the Proposition 8 campaign, one of the most effective issues for advocates of Prop. 8 was the concern that children would be taught to affirm and celebrate homosexuality and same-sex marriage in the public schools. Opponents vehemently insisted that same-sex marriage would have no impact on schools or on children whatsoever. So then what happened? A class of first-graders was brought to San Francisco City Hall to witness the wedding of their lesbian teacher. So much for the no impact claim.

Another example occurred in the recent debate over legislation that would repeal the current law against open homosexuality in the military. To break a filibuster, liberals had targeted two Republican senators—Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine. To sway the votes of Collins and Snowe, homosexual activists staged a major rally in Maine the day before the vote. The headline speaker was Stefani Germanotta, the 24-year-old, strangely-dressed, boundary-pushing pop singer better known as Lady Gaga. The effort failed, as Collins and Snowe voted with the rest of the Republican caucus. But did homosexual activists really believe that the gentleladies from Maine would be persuaded by Lady Gaga?

Actually, the point of the anti-H8 web video is not to change minds—its to raise money. You can buy t-shirts, buttons, or stickers bearing the F**H8 message, or milder and less cryptic ones like, Some dudes marry dudes. Get over it. Proceeds will help fund the fight for equal marriage rights.

Five dollars from the sale of each thirteen-dollar t-shirt is donated to one of four pro-homosexual activist groups (none of which sponsor or endorse the website). One is the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which was founded by Hollywood actor and director Rob Reiner (yes, the meathead from All in the Family) to hire Republican and Democratic super-lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies for a federal lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8. So the August decision by Judge Vaughn Walker (now on appeal), that same-sex marriage is a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, was funded (at least in some small part) by f-bombs on the web.

But what is really shocking about the video is this: three of its participants are children. Not teenagers—young, pre-adolescent children. One is a boy who appears to be about six years old. Another is a girl who looks to be perhaps nine. The third is a girl who is perhaps eleven. And yes—the children drop the f-bomb too.

Is this supposed to be funny? Its not. Its child abuse.

Two of the children make specific reference to their gay parents. I dont know if this is true, or if they are just young actors reading a script.

But either way—can they really believe that swearing children are a good tool to expand support for their cause? Are we to understand that this would be the brave new world under gay parenting and same-sex marriage—a world in which parents teach obscenities to their children, then put videos of them using those obscenities on the web to raise money?

If so—God help us. And God save the children.

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by
Peter Sprigg

October 30, 2010

A majority of active-duty and reserve service members surveyed by the Defense Department would not object to serving and living alongside openly gay troops, according to multiple people familiar with the findings.

The surveys results are expected to be included in a Pentagon report, due to President Obama on Dec. 1 … .

The sources who leaked this information, or the reporter who wrote it, or both, are highly biased in favor of the pro-homosexual position on this issue. How can I tell? Because I have seen the survey, and it never asks, Would you object to serving and living alongside openly gay troops?

FRC will soon be releasing a more detailed analysis of the weaknesses of the two surveys (one of service members and one of their spouses). But ever since the surveys were announced and their contents wereagainleaked, we have been criticizing them for failing to ask the most fundamental question of allDo you believe that the current law on homosexuality in the armed forces should be repealed? Instead, the surveys (and the entire study by the Comprehensive Review Working Group) have been premised on the idea that the law will be repealed, and they seek to determine only how such a change should be implemented.

The military is a hierarchical, command-based structure. Therefore, when the Congress, the Commander-in-Chief, possibly the courts, and ones immediate superiors all say that you must serve and live alongside openly gay troops, to object is not an option. You either obey, or you leave.

On that point, the story goes on to say:

Some troops surveyed - but not a majority - objected strongly to the idea of serving with gays and said they would quit the military if the policy changed . . .

Is this how they concluded that a majority … would not object? Its certainly a relief that a majority would not leave, because our armed forces would be destroyed if that happened. But if even ten percent were to leave (as one earlier poll suggested), it would have a devastating impact on our military.

Check frc.org for our more detailed critique of these surveys in coming weeks.

Thompson, however, has delved into the archives of military history and relates findings about how African Americans were integrated within the armed forces without major difficulty. He concludes that the integration of homosexuals would take place just as smoothly.

One key difference, of course, is that blacks had long been eligible to serve in the military, but had served in segregated units. In contrast, homosexuals have always been considered ineligible for military service at all. (The popular misnomer Dont Ask Dont Tell misleads many into believing that active homosexuals are currently welcomed by the military as long as they stay in the closet. The truth is the oppositethe 1993 law mandates, with very limited exceptions, the discharge of any servicemember who has engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited another to engage in a homosexual act or acts.)

1) Is being gay like being black?

2) Is sexual conduct relevant to military effectiveness?

The logical answer to #1 is no. Homosexuality is a behavioral characteristic; being black is a superficial matter of skin color. The racial integration of the military was successful precisely because it proved that the behavior of black soldiers did not differ from that of whites. But with homosexuality, a difference in behavior is what defines the issue. Do not be fooled by vague references to sexual orientation as though it were an innate characteristicwhat homosexual activists now seek is the right to continue engaging in homosexual acts while in the military .

Homosexual activists compare sexual orientation to race in order to obscure the important differences between sexual attractions, behavior, and self-identification. Only the attractions are, like race, involuntary; but none of these elements of sexual orientation are (like race) inborn, immutable, innocuous, and in the Constitution. The 1993 law which homosexual activists seek to overturn is focused on homosexual conduct, and treats attractions or self-identification as relevant only because they are evidence of a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts.

So does the military have a legitimate interest in regulating the sexual conduct of its members? The answer has always been yes, with respect to heterosexual conduct as well as homosexual. Adultery, for instance, remains a crime in the military, at a time when the civil law has long since become indifferent to it. As Congress found in 1993, high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion … are the essence of military capability, and there is no doubt that sexual conduct can threaten those standards and harm that capability.

The analogy to the racial integration of the military, even if it had any validity, would apply only to the concern that homosexuality in the military would damage recruiting and retention of personnel. But those are only two out of the nine likely negative consequences of repealing the current law that were identified by Col. Robert Maginnis in the FRC booklet Mission Compromised. The others are:

Damage to unit effectiveness.

Health consequences with high cost.

Threats to freedom of those who morally object to homosexuality.

Special protections for homosexuals.

Taxpayer-funded benefits to homosexual partners of servicemembers.

Possibility of costly new living arrangements to protect privacy.

Changes to military law and regulations regarding sexual offenses.

The argument that, as the gay newsmagazine The Advocate recently declared on its cover, Gay is the New Black, is one that most blacks resent, and that simply cannot stand up to serious scrutiny.

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by
Peter Sprigg

September 21, 2010

Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions have come under criticism recently (including from FRC President Tony Perkins) over their decision to help the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) raise money to elect pro-homosexual candidates by speaking at an LCR event on September 22. Those who bought tickets to the event were clearly told that the proceeds benefit LCRPAC.

The Log Cabin Republicans have been at the forefront of trying to mainstream radical homosexual activism within the Republican party. They have tried to perpetuate (and Cornyn and Sessions seem to have fallen for) a myth that they are faithful Republicans who only have a small quibble with conservatives on issues involving homosexuality. But LCRs refusal to even support George W. Bush for re-election in 2004 is but part of a large body of evidence that LCR is far out of the Republican mainstream.

In fact, this might be a good time to remind people why the group call themselves Log Cabin Republicans in the first place. The LCR website says, The name of the organization is a reference to the first Republican President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a Log Cabin. President Lincoln built the Republican Party on the principles of liberty and equality.

However, there is a double entendre to the name. Homosexual activists also recognize it as an allusion to the fanciful but persistent theory that Abraham Lincoln himself was gay. For example, when presidential candidate Bob Dole returned a campaign contribution from the LCR in 1995, one prominent Log Cabin Republican, W. Scott Thompson, declared that homosexuals should be welcomed in the party, given that the founder was gay.

Supporters of the Lincoln was gay theory usually cite the well-documented fact that for several years, he shared a bed with a man named Joshua Speed. Anachronistically, they project 21st century concepts of gay life and behavior back into the 19th, ignoring the fact that sharing a bed with a same-sex roommate, with no sexual implication, was common at that time.

Proof that Lincolns relationship with Speed was innocent comes from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent book, Team of Rivals.

Goodwin is a veritable Massachusetts liberal. She may even support Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court’s far-fetched ruling that permits men to marry men. But she draws the line at suggestions that Lincoln had homosexual feelings for Joshua Speed.

The proof? In December, 1864, President Lincoln nominated Joshua’s older brother James Speed for Attorney General of the U.S. In a letter to the Senate formally naming the elder Speed, Lincoln said he knew the Kentuckian, but not as well as Joshua Speed “with whom I shared a bed in Springfield for several years.”

If there were anything remotely sexual in that comment, Lincoln would hardly have been likely to tell all his fiercest political opponents about it. The Senate Judiciary Committee was then, as it is now, a hotbed of partisan rivalries.

Sen. John Cornyn should not have agreed to help the Log Cabiners with a fund-raiser in any event. But if he knew his Lincoln better, he would be offended at the group’s sly innuendo about the Great Emancipator.

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by
Peter Sprigg

August 6, 2010

This week San Francisco federal Judge Vaughn Walker, in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects a right of same-sex couples to marry. This has sparked speculation about how the case might fare on appeal if and when it reaches the Supreme Court. Some commentators argue that the courts decision striking down sodomy laws, in the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas, implies that the court would also back same-sex marriage. I wrote on that subject in 2004, and below are my observations, with quotes from the opinions in Lawrence.

The nuclear bomb of the homosexual marriage movement would be a decision by the United States Supreme Court declaring that it is unconstitutional to deny homosexual couples the benefits, or perhaps even the actual status, of civil marriage.

The likelihood of such a ruling appeared to increase exponentially when the Supreme Court struck down state laws against homosexual sodomy in the case of Lawrence v. Texas, which was decided on June 26, 2003.

Dissenting justice Antonin Scalia warned as much in his scathing dissent:

State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestialiy, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers’ validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s decision: the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding.[i]

However, a close examination of the majority opinion seems to cast doubt on Scalias sweeping claim that there was no such effort to cabin the rulings scope. For example, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision says this:

The laws involved in Bowers and here … seek to control a personal relationship that, whether or not entitled to formal recognition in the law, is within the liberty of persons to choose without being punished as criminals.[ii]

In other words, he concedes that these relationships may not be “entitled to formal recognition,” i.e., marriage. He goes on immediately after to say:

This, as a general rule, should counsel against attempts by the state, or a court, to define the meaning of the relationship or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person or abuse of an institution the law protects.[iii]

Presumably he’s speaking of marriage here, and accepting that same-sex marriage, like adultery, might constitute abuse of an institution the law protects. Then in his conclusion, Kennedy again says:

The present case … does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.[iv]

Likewise, in her concurring opinion (basing her decision on equal protection considerations rather than privacy and due process), Justice O’Connor wrote:

That this law as applied to private, consensual conduct is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause does not mean that other laws distinguishing between heterosexuals and homosexuals would similarly fail under rational basis review. Texas cannot assert any legitimate state interest here, such as national security or preserving the traditional institution of marriage. Unlike the moral disapproval of same-sex relations—the asserted state interest in this case—other reasons exist to promote the institution of marriage beyond mere moral disapproval of an excluded group.[v]

In referring to national security or preserving the traditional institution of marriage as a legitimate state interest, she seems to be clearly saying that this case does not involve gays in the military or homosexual marriage.

Scalia, though, remained skeptical:

This reasoning leaves on pretty shaky grounds state laws limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. Justice O’Connor seeks to preserve them by the conclusory statement that preserving the traditional institution of marriage is a legitimate state interest. But preserving the traditional institution of marriage is just a kinder way of describing the State’s moral disapproval of same-sex couples.

Although I greatly respect Justice Scalia, I dont fully agree with this last sentence. As I have noted earlier, opposition to homosexual marriage does not have to be grounded only in disapproval of homosexual couples, but can rest in the recognition that their relationships are by nature something different from marriage.

While the majority opinion did have passages that appeared to distinguish the issues in Lawrence from those involved in marriage, yet other passages did indeed hint at a link. For example, Kennedy said:

When sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring. The liberty protected by the Constitution allows homosexual persons the right to make this choice.[vi]

In another passage, Kennedy cited the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey (which upheld a right to abortion). Kennedy declared:

He then went on to state, Persons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do.[vii]

Legal scholars on the other side of the debate have drawn very similar conclusions to Scalias. Liberal Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe says, Same-sex marriage, as Justice Scalia predicted in his outraged dissent, is bound to follow; it is only a question of time… . [T]he underlying theory and most important passages of Lawrence suggest ready (though not immediate) applicability of the holding to same-sex marriage … .[viii]

In summary, a close reading of the Lawrence decision suggests that advocates of same-sex marriage could claim that it serves as precedent for same-sex marriagebut it would not inevitably do so.

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by
Peter Sprigg

August 5, 2010

There is much to be said about U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walkers ruling in favor of same-sex marriage on August 4, and we will have more analysis of the opinion in coming days and weeks.

However, some media outlets have been reporting that this ruling is unprecedented because it is the first time that a federal court has tried to strike down a state marriage amendment on federal constitutional grounds. This is completely untrue. On May 12, 2005, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bataillon issued a very similar ruling striking down Nebraskas marriage amendment. This ruling, however, did not standit was struck down, unanimously, by a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit on July 14, 2006.

The Eighth Circuit, like a majority of courts that have ruled on this issue (including the state Supreme Courts of New York, Washington, and Maryland), declared that the states interest in promoting responsible procreation provided a rational basis for distinguishing between opposite-sex and same-sex couples in the definition of marriage. Yet Judge Walkers decision dismissed this compelling argument with the casual observation, Never has the state inquired into procreative capacity or intent before issuing a marriage license.

The Eighth Circuits ruling explains why this is not a compelling argument for mandating same-sex marriage. Excerpts are below (citations omitted):

The State argues that the many laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman and extending a variety of benefits to married couples are rationally related to the government interest in steering procreation into marriage. By affording legal recognition and a basket of rights and benefits to married heterosexual couples, such laws encourage procreation to take place within the socially recognized unit that is best situated for raising children. The State and its supporting amici cite a host of judicial decisions and secondary authorities recognizing and upholding this rationale. The argument is based in part on the traditional notion that two committed heterosexuals are the optimal partnership for raising children … . But it is also based on a responsible procreation theory that justifies conferring the inducements of marital recognition and benefits on opposite-sex couples, who can otherwise produce children by accident, but not on same-sex couples, who cannot. Whatever our personal views regarding this political and sociological debate, we cannot conclude that the States justification lacks a rational relationship to legitimate state interests.

Even if the classification … is to some extent both underinclusive and overinclusive, and hence the line drawn … imperfect, it is nevertheless the rule that … perfection is by no means required. Legislatures are permitted to use generalizations so long as the question is at least debatable. The package of government benefits and restrictions that accompany the institution of formal marriage serve a variety of other purposes. The legislature — or the people through the initiative process — may rationally choose not to expand in wholesale fashion the groups entitled to those benefits.

We hope that the Ninth Circuitand/or the Supreme Courtwill follow this reasonable precedent.

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by
Peter Sprigg

July 13, 2010

Not only are the Obama administration and the Pelosi-led Democrats in Congress out of step with the American public in giving high priority to pushing a radical homosexual agenda, but they are out of step with their own Democratic base. Thats the message of a recent, admittedly unscientific survey conducted by The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC). Heres how they described the survey:

More than 2,000 Democratic supporters offered input, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia… . Respondents were asked to rank how important a series of issues were to them. The issues were: Fully Funding Public Schools, Expanding Environmental Protections and Clean Energy, Strengthening Government Ethics Rules, Promoting Job Growth, and Promoting Equal Rights for the LGBT Community.

The results? All five issues were rated “extremely important” by a majority of respondents—except for LGBT “Equal Rights,” which got that rating from only 47.3%. By contrast, over 80% of respondents rated Public Education as extremely important. The homosexual agenda even had 19.3% of these Democratic activists dismissing it with replies of “not very important” (7.9%), “not important at all” (5.6%), or “no answer” (5.8%). Only 5.6% were as negative toward education as a priority.

We can only hope Congressional leadership will take this into account in determining whether to make homosexuals in the military and ENDA a priority in the tight legislative calendar between now and next January, when the new Congress takes office.

July 13, 2010

Some people who support in principle the idea of sex education in schools may wonder what the fuss is about in Helena. Just so people know how extreme the proposed curriculum is, here are some excerptsdirect quotations from the outline (available on the websee pp. 45-50):

Kindergarten:

Grade 1:

Understand human beings can love people of the same gender & people of another gender

Grade 2:

Understand making fun of people by calling them gay (e.g., homo, fag,’ queer) is disrespectful and hurtful.

Grade 4:

Understand sexual harassment is unwanted and uninvited sexual attention such as teasing, touching, or taunting, sexting and is against the law. [sic]

Grade 5:

Understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.

Understand sexual orientation refers to a persons physical and/or romantic attraction to an individual of the same and/or different gender, and is part of ones [sic] personality.

Grade 6:

Understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration; using the penis, fingers, tongue or objects.

Understand gender identity is different from sexual orientation.

Grade 7:

Discuss the Supreme Court decision that has ruled that, to a certain extent, people have the right to make personal decisions concerning sexuality & reproductive health matters, such as abortion, sterilization, and contraception.

Discuss state laws governing the age of consent for sexual behaviors.

Understand sexual abuse involving touching can include kissing, an abuser touching genitals touching the abusers genitals, being asked to touch ones own genitals, or engaging in vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse. [sic]